15 Minutes: Denver

After sending the rescued troll, Caribou, on his way and overcoming the final obstacle on the way to their target (a canteen full of off-duty guards) our morally questionable heroes at last recover the data they’re looking for.
Searching through the years of medical records for anything that might be relevant to his own crusade, Jefferson discovers a pattern of metavariant patients, including two gnomes, being transferred to “Typhon.”

After being ambushed by a group of Humanis Policlub thugs on the way to meet Mr Johnson, the gang accept a job to recover medical records from the Paladin Health and Welfare Clinic on the edge of the Warrens. They’re paid ¥500 each up front for accepting the job, with a promise of a further ¥1750 apiece upon completion.

Through Amerith’s subltle hack of Mr Johnson’s commlink they discover the job is on behalf of Parker James, an activist for the Sons of Sauron, and begin reaching out to their contacts and searching the matrix for more information about the clinic…

In which we introduce our cast, their backstory and their relationships.

Jefferson, investigating the kidnapping of his family, stumbles upon a conspiracy to kidnap gnomes from all over Japan. He hires Yoshimoto as a gun-for-hire to break into a Renraku facility near the docks in Chiba, Tokyo. Succeeding in spite of unexpectedly heavy security, they discover a few dozen gnomes, though none of Jefferson’s family, in a shipping container ready to be shipped out to an unknown facility. Unable to extract them all safely, they leave them in place while they try to arrange forged passports and smugglers willing to get the group out of Japan, and Renraku’s clutches, promising to return before

Amerith, a forger and anti-government activist in New Delhi, is contacted for the job through Jefferson’s contacts in ‘Freak Squad’, a private host on the Denver Nexus that grew from a Shadowrun Online clan. Before she could finish preparing the sizeable portfolio of documents required, her apartment is raided by armed goons. She escapes in a hail of gunfire, but her handler, who had arrived seconds earlier to warn her of the attack, is left behind.
Simultaneously, in Tokyo, Jefferson and Yoshimoto returned to the facility to find it destroyed in an explosion that had taken out half the city block and, presumably, the captured gnomes. Realising they’ve pissed off some very powerful people, they contact Amerith to let her know that the number of passports required is down to two, and arrange to meet in Hong Kong, known for its deep shadows and limited Renraku influence. Not knowing who to trust, they make their way to the only place they knew they had friends: Denver.

They’ve been in Denver for several months now, hidden in the slums of the Aurora Warrens and running the shadows to make ends meet, while Jefferson tirelessly searches for more clues about the conspiracy he discovered in Tokyo.

Their main ally since arriving in Denver has been Quill, another Freak Squad member who helped them get set up with local contacts and job opportunities. An infiltration expert, Quill has been a regular accomplice, his Falconine form proving indispensable for surveillance.

A somewhat more unpredictable ally, Angus works at a dive bar deep in the warrens frequented by metavariants and non-metahuman sapients. The jury is still out on whether he likes keeping the ‘Freaks’ around because he, himself, is a minotaur and likes being in the presence of other metavariants, or if he just like the excuse to exact violence on the customers who make trouble for them. Angus has been on a few jobs with the crew, and they’ve learned to be careful only to bring him into jobs that require extreme violence.

Based on a tip off from Cole, the gang head out to meet Barret, who’s has a job they might be interested in: some local Ghouls have been straying out of their normal territory and attacking Barret’s customers.

Their journey takes them straight through the abandoned district of Sheridan, where the ghouls are apparently based, but they see no movement on the way through: the district seems completely derelict.

While Jimmy goes inside to meet Barret, Lanche and Pierre stay in the truck, scanning the area with drones, and spotting a few heat signatures sneaking around the run down buildings.

Jimmy uses his military history and rank to befriend Barret, who explains that the ghouls in the neighbouring area usually keep to themselves, but two of his customers have been attacked recently and he wants them gone. He explains that they’ve been seen most frequently around a garage deep in the northern end of the abandoned area.

The gang head out to the garage and, in spite of some mysterious magical interference, easily take out a couple of feral Ghouls that attack. While Lanche and Pierre are checking the rest of the garage for ghouls Jimmy receives a message from the Astral plane.

The voice introduces itself, and explains that the ghouls are in the area at his invitation, even those that had lost their humanity entirely. He is unaware that they had been straying out of the district and promises to keep them under control in exchange for being left alone. He also promises the gang safe passage in and out of the area, and allows them to use the old garage as a base of operations in exchange for helping him to feed the ghouls- recently dead bodies that need disappearing are to be left in the park…

After they successfully escape their pursuers on the way out of Seattle, Chrome sends the group instructions on how to meet a contact in Denver who can make them invisible. For a fee.

With the orc’s help they cross the border into the Salish-Shidhe Council, and from there south into the Pueblo Corporate Council.

The entire journey takes three weeks, including 2 spent in a dead end PCC town, awaiting some low level fake IDs that will serve them in case of a random stop. Staying off the main freeways to avoid such encounters, and meeting contacts to help them avoid manned border crossings takes up the rest of the time.

Jimmy is somewhat despondent, having grown used to city life, and being suddenly dumped out in the sticks without even a ’trix connection. While waiting for the IDs he pretty much spends the entire time in any bar they can find.

Pierre uses up the vast majority of his stash over the course of their journey, and spends the time drinking with Jimmy to take his mind off the dwindling stash.

Lanche, accustomed to smuggling missions and long periods of waiting never shows any sign of discomfort.

When they finally reach the outskirts of Denver they arrive at the rendezvous to find their contact waiting for them.

Cole is stood by his truck, watching them approach. He checks the RFID tags they’ve been given by Chrome and waves them over. Jimmy studies Cole as they walk over, he’s remarkably nondescript. In fact, deliberately so. it takes a trained eye, but Jimmy can tell that he puts a lot of effort into being invisible.

Cole speaks directly to Lanche, ignoring the others: “We might need to lose the van. I can have it taken care of, but if we’re going into the city you’re coming in my truck”

The troll begrudgingly agrees: “But we’ve got a few toys to bring across”

Cole: “The van will be anonymised for you, but it’ll cost 500 on top of your accommodation, and another 300 for the bike”

Lanche goes to the van and starts unloading a crate

Cole: “What’s in the box?”
Lanche: “Personal effects”
Cole: “Leave it. It can come with the van”

Shortly after they arrive and are set up in Cole’s safehouse Jimmy uses his magic to help him and Pierre sneak out unnoticed to the nearby bar, where Pierre buys some cram from the local gang: The Halloweeners.

Where it all went wrong

A call from a friend from the old days, Cal, finally got Jimmy, Pierre and Lanche together after months apart. Cal put them in touch with a new contact who was looking for a crew for a series of missions. Unknown to them the missions were being recorded on a full simsense rig by a new member of the group, an inexperienced but talented hacker known as Steeleye (or just Gary).
Steeleye’s drones and datasearch skills provided invaluable information during their missions together, and in spite of Pierre’s reluctance to trust the rookie he proved to be an important member of the team.
Unfortunately (for Gary), Chrome and his crew caught up with them, just as Ramirez had planned. But instead of attacking the group (and in spite of Pierre’s repeated attempts to kill him) he told them what was really going on. Gary, controlling his drones from inside Lanche’s van, attempted to override the locks to keep himself safe and escape, but Lanche’s familiarity with the vehicle won out. Pierre stunned the rookie with a taser and the group drove off with him, shaking pursuit from Ramirez’s mooks thanks to Pierre and a handy grenade launcher.
Shaken by the betrayal, the group decided to take a gruesome revenge. They took the unconscious rookie to an organlegging den and tortured him, recording everything on trideo using his drones, and everything he felt on his simrig. The torture was cut short by a black ops team raiding the den. They managed to leave through the back and escape, the assailants initially seeming more concerned with recovering Steele’s body.

It has since come to their attention that whoever Steele was, his death has pissed off some serious players within Ares Macrotechnology, one of the Big Ten, a member of the Corporate Court, and owners of Knight Errant, the privatised police force for much of the UCAS…

Once upon a time, an experienced team of shadowrunners named Chrome, Sally, and Mac accepted a unique job from a man who called himself Mr Johnson. The job was unique because, in addition to the expected tasks of larceny, kidnapping and murder, they were asked to record their experiences to be broadcast as part of an ultra-gritty simsense reality show.
Under the promise of anonymity and a hefty pay cheque, they set about embarrassing gangs, corporations and security forces, all in the name of entertainment. The recordings were distributed virally and with their origins heavily obfuscated, to ensure that none of the injured parties would be able to trace the deeds back to Mr Johnson or the team.
Everything went smoothly until the team found out just how much Mr Johnson, or Ramirez (as they discovered after much digging), was making from their partnership. Chrome approached him, wielding the new found knowledge and politely (in Chrome’s words) requested an alteration to the terms of their deal. When Ramirez refused the crew started making trouble, not enough to harm the enterprise but enough to send a message to their employer. Ramirez’s response wasn’t what they had hoped, he cut the deal off completely and vanished, leaving the crew with no job and the threat of the exposure of their recent work hanging over their heads. They agreed to go into hiding, biding their time until Ramirez resurfaced; intending to either get their jobs back or, failing that, to just cause as much trouble for the Aztlan as possible.